Lenten Meditations: Saturday 17 March

Mar 17, 2018 by Jill

FOURTH SATURDAY OF LENT – Patrick, Bishop & Missionary of Ireland, 461

LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: Saint Patrick, the Apostle of the Irish, was seized from his native Britain by Irish marauders when he was sixteen years old. Though the son of a deacon and grandson of a priest, it was not until his captivity that he sought out the Lord with his whole heart. In his Confession, the testament he wrote towards the end of his life, he says, ‘After I came to Ireland — every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed — the love of God and His fear came to me more and mo re, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was so moved that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many at night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain; and I would rise for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm.”

After six years of slavery in Ireland, he was guided by God to make his escape, and afterwards struggled in the monastic life in Aesir in Gaul [now France], under the guidance of the holy Bishop Germanus. Many years later he was ordained bishop and sent to Ireland once again, about the year 432, to convert the Irish to Christ. His arduous labors bore so much fruit that within seven years, three bishops were sent from Gaul to help h im shepherd his flock . His apostolic work was not accomplished without much ‘weariness and painfulness,’ long journeys through difficult country, and many perils; he says his very life was in danger twelve times.

When he came to Ireland , it was a pagan country; when he ended his earthly life some thirty years later , about 461, the Faith of Christ was established in every corner. The work of St Patrick and his brethren has been called the most successful single missionary venture in the history of the western church,

MEDITATION OF THE DAY : Do we listen to God? Do any of us really listen to God or do we just hear what we want to hear? If we are not listening and hearing His will and desire for our lives as individuals and as the community of faith known as the Church, are we honoring the God in whom we confess to have faith?

In this Gospel reading, Jesus states very emphatically that he honors His Father, God and does not seek to glorify himself but only to do the work that God has given Him to do. He further promises that if we honor God and seek his will, we will never see death. He tells the Jews that they are liars, and they do not know God even though they claim him as their God. Jesus then tells them that He knows God and keeps his word. The Jews were very angry with Jesus’ statements and threatened to kill him because he tells them the truth. They are not able to hear the truth because their minds are filled with accusations and hate. Do we know God? Do we seek His will in all our efforts and activities or are we only giving lip service to his divinity? Today we recall Patrick whose lips and lives were mirrors of each other. What do we need to do to accomplish the same?

PRAYER OF THE DAY: Almighty God, who in your providence chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.

LENTEN DISCIPLINE – Meditate on the Prayer of Saint Patricks Breastplate . Go to http://www.prayerfoundation.org/st_patricks_breastplate_prayer.htm.

ANCIENT WORDS/PRESENT GRACE : It was not any grace in me, but God that put this earnest care into my heart, that I should be one of the hunters or fishers whom long ago God foreshowed would come in the last days..

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